1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate generally to a method and system for providing effective, network-based transactions. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and system to remotely activate enhanced functionality in a viewer application using a viewed document.
2. Description of Related Technology
Network-based transactions have lent greater productivity to the business world. With network-based systems, namely the Internet, businesses and organizations are now able to optimize their transaction capabilities by conducting transactions with their clients and customers online. Transactions that were previously performed in person or through the mail are now routinely done over the Internet in an automated and more efficient manner. However, certain types of transactions cannot be performed or, at least, cannot be completely performed over the Internet. That is because certain transactions require the need for some type of enhanced functionality and such enhanced functionality cannot be reasonably included in the process.
Consider the annual tax forms distributed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) each year to collect taxes. This task is performed by a paper-based system that requires the taxpayer to obtain a form, complete it, sign it and send the form back to the IRS. The efficiency of performing each of these tasks could be increased if this paper-based system were converted to a network-based system. With a network-based system, once an electronic form is created and stored on a central server, it is made accessible to the public. Therefore, the need to reproduce, distribute and store voluminous amounts of paper is eliminated. Processing of the electronic forms is also made easier. Data from the electronic form is more easily extracted when entered as electronic text into an electronic form than when it is extracted from paper-based documents that contain the taxpayer""s writings. Thus, if electronic forms were made available over the Internet, a forms processing application could be used for completing and submitting the completed electronic form back to the IRS with many of the inefficiencies eliminated. The problem in this example is that tax forms require the signature of the taxpayer. The problem does not arise from the fact that signatures are performed by hand on paper. Digital signatures have been recognized by the Federal Legislature for their reliability and have been given legal acceptability per The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. However, forms processing applications are typically unable to provide this enhanced functionality to a large segment of people at a cost that makes the process a reasonable endeavor. The reasons are related to the architecture of the forms processing application.
The electronic form is created using a base software application that, includes an electronic document design application, which in this instance is a form design application; but another application, which is essentially an enhanced viewer (viewer), is required by the person filling out the form (the taxpayer) to locally open a form on their computer for data entry. The viewer raises a cost barrier to the implementation of this forms processing application. Though it is fiscally reasonable for a business or organization (organization) to license a form design application from a vendor to implement the forms processing application, it is impractical to license the viewer for the numerous remotely located customers or clients of the organization. In cases where a form is made available to the general public (government forms), the government would need to pay for a viewer license fee for every citizen who might access the form. This is impractical. The numbers involved are too great making the costs exorbitant. Furthermore, the majority of the benefit of electronically processed form-based transactions is realized by the organization. For this reason, it is not realistic to expect that remote form users will pay a license fee for an enhanced viewer.
However, there does exist a legitimate business method where viewers can effectively be provided to an organization""s client or customer base without the huge cost detriment involved with licensing those viewers. Under this business method, a vendor that owns a page description language (PDL) application that creates and converts forms to PDL may want to freely distribute viewers that read the PDL in an effort to increase sales of the PDL application. For example, this method is practiced by Adobe, Inc.""s (Adobe""s) ACROBAT. With ACROBAT, a user can convert documents composed in a variety of formats into the Adobe""s proprietary PDL, xe2x80x9cPortable Document Formatxe2x80x9d or PDF. Adobe has another application called ACROBAT READER that allows an end-user to view and print the PDF document. ACROBAT READER is made freely available to the public. Through this practice, Adobe has made PDF documents the de facto format for portable documents. An end user can view any document if the original user creates or converts the document to PDF. If an end-user wants to take advantage of certain enhanced functionality (i.e., digital signature) at their remote location, the end-user would need to use ACROBAT. ACROBAT is not freely distributed to end-users. Licenses of this product must be purchased. What is needed is a method and system for allowing the free deployment of viewer software that, when presented with a document having certain necessary criteria (such as an embedded activation key), unlocks certain inherent features in the viewer that provide enhanced functionality.
The present invention provides a solution to this problem that involves remotely activating enhanced functionality in the end-users application (e.g., the viewer). In this fashion, it is possible to implement an increased licensing cost for those organizations that wish to use enhanced functionality features. When enhanced functionality is needed by the organization, it can be imparted to a specific document. Viewers capable of carrying out the capabilities of the enhanced functionality can be freely distributed since those features can be made functional by organizations who distribute forms and who are willing to pay the added costs on behalf of their users in order to obtain the significant automation benefits. Tracking devices can be placed in a network to track document use for per document licensing schemes.
In the forms processing application, the digital signature capability is activated within the viewer. The viewer possesses the inherent capability to perform digital signatures, but only through activation and while the electronic form was active in the viewer. Activation is made possible by including in an electronic form developed with the form design application, form-specific data that controls activation of the value-added features for the given document. The data is embedded in the electronic form file and is accessed remotely by the viewer to determine what, if any, enhanced functionality features should be activated. A form design application capable of imparting enhanced functionality and embedding such functionality in the electronic form is utilized. Furthermore, by embedding form-specific and organization-specific identification information, licensing schemes can be established based on electronic form use.
A method and system for remote activation of enhanced functionality features in locally created documents comprise a base software application including an electronic document design application for creating electronic documents, a delivery mechanism included in the electronic document design application for imparting document features to the electronic document, a viewing application for viewing the electronic documents created by the electronic document creation application and carrying out the document features imparted to the electronic document by the delivery mechanism, a binary string generator for generating an activation key, the sequence of which is based on the document features imparted to the electronic document, a processor for reading the activation key upon loading the electronic document into the viewing application to determine which document features were imparted to the electronic document and activating the capabilities corresponding to those document features in the electronic document viewing application. The system also includes processing instructions for reading the activation key when an electronic document is put in focus and processing instructions for deactivating all document features when an electronic document is removed from focus. The system further includes a network server for transmission of the electronic document from a first node to a second node, license and document identification information embedded in the electronic document, a counter located at the network server for counting the transmissions to and from the network server and a means for reading the counter for assessing licensing fees. The document features may be enhanced functionality features that add value-added benefits to the electronic document that are atypical for such documents.
In one aspect of the invention, there is a system for remotely activating document features in locally created electronic documents, the system comprising a. an electronic document design application for creating an electronic document on a local computer; b. means for entering document features to the electronic document; c. means for generating an activation key correlating to the document features entered to the electronic document and embedding the activation key into the electronic document; d. means for delivering the electronic document to a remote computer through an electronic network; e. means for receiving the electronic document at the remote computer; f. a viewer application located on the remote computer for opening the electronic document, the viewer application having functionalities for carrying out document features, the functionalities being selectively unlocked in response to an activation key corresponding to the entered document features; and g. means for reading the activation key in the electronic document and unlocking the document features in correlation to the activation key.
In another aspect of the invention, there is a method of remotely activating document features in a locally created electronic document, the method comprising a. creating an electronic document at a local computer using an electronic document design application, b. entering document features to the electronic document using the functionality of the electronic document design application, c. generating an activation key in relation to the document features entered to the electronic document, d. embedding the activation key in the electronic document, e. delivering the electronic document to a remote computer, f. receiving the electronic document at the remote computer, g. opening the electronic document in a viewer application having functionality for carrying out document features, h. reading the activation key in the electronic document, and i. unlocking selected document features in response to the activation key.
In another aspect of the invention, there is a system for determining license fees for network based transactions, the system comprising a. a network server having memory, b. a plurality of transaction files residing in the memory of the network server, c. a unique organization code taken from a plurality of organization codes and embedded in at least one transaction file, each of the plurality of organization codes corresponding to a unique organization, d. a computer, e. means for placing a request from the computer to the network server for download of the at least one transaction file from the network server to the computer, f. means for reading the unique organization code each time the at least one transaction file is downloaded from the network server to the computer, g. means for counting the number of times the unique organization code is read, and h. means for calculating a license fee for an organization in response to the number of times the unique organization code is read.
In another aspect of the invention, there is a system for determining license fees for network based transactions, the system comprising a network server having a memory, a plurality of transaction files residing in the memory of the network server, a unique organization code taken from a plurality of organization codes and embedded in at least one transaction file, each of the plurality of organization codes corresponding to a unique organization, a plurality of computers, a communication module operating on one of the computers and configured to place a request from the one computer to the network server for download of the at least one transaction file from the network server to the one computer, and a tracking module operating on the network server and configured to read the unique organization code each time the at least one transaction file is downloaded from the network server to the one computer, count the number of times the unique organization code is read, and calculate a license fee for an organization in response to the number of times the unique organization code is read.
In another aspect of the invention, there is a computer-readable medium containing instructions for remotely activating document features in a locally created electronic document, by entering document features to an electronic document using the functionality of an electronic document design application, generating an activation key in relation to the document features entered to the electronic document, embedding the activation key in the electronic document, delivering the electronic document to a remote computer, receiving the electronic document at the remote computer, opening the electronic document in a viewer application having functionality for carrying out document features, reading the activation key in the electronic document, and unlocking selected document features in response to the activation key.
In another aspect of the invention, there is a program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of remotely activating document features in a locally created electronic document, the method comprising entering document features to an electronic document using the functionality of an electronic document design application, generating an activation key in relation to the document features entered to the electronic document, embedding the activation key in the electronic document, delivering the electronic document to a remote computer, receiving the electronic document at the remote computer, opening the electronic document in a viewer application having functionality for carrying out document features, reading the activation key in the electronic document, and unlocking selected document features in response to the activation key.
In another aspect of the invention, there is a computer-readable medium containing instructions for determining license fees for network based transactions, by placing a request from a computer to a network server for download of at least one transaction file from the network server to the computer, reading a unique organization code each time the at least one transaction file is downloaded from the network server to the computer, wherein the unique organization code is selected from a plurality of organization codes and is embedded in at least one transaction file, and wherein each of the plurality of organization codes corresponds to a unique organization, counting the number of times the unique organization code is read, and calculating a license fee for an organization in response to the number of times the unique organization code is read.
In yet another aspect of the invention, there is a program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of determining license fees for network based transactions, the method comprising embedding a unique organization code selected from a plurality of organization codes into at least one transaction file, wherein each of the plurality of organization codes corresponds to a unique organization, placing a request from a computer to a network server for download of the at least one transaction file from the network server to the computer, reading the unique organization code each time the at least one transaction file is downloaded from the network server to the computer, counting the number of times the unique organization code is read, and calculating a license fee for an organization in response to the number of times the unique organization code is read.